Norwood partnership allows physician group to focus on optimal patient care

A large physician group responsible for more than 175,000 lives across 300 locations doesn’t have a lot of time for self-reflection. Nor should it. Its focus is where it needs to be—providing care for a range of complex patients across more than 30 specialty services. 

 

But when it realized its quality scores and reimbursement were lagging, it turned to Norwood for help.

 

Together, we partnered on a six-month managed services pilot to audit the documentation support for conditions captured by its primary care and specialist providers.

 

The work

 

Over six months Norwood performed a review of 100 providers, focusing on 14 patients each (1,400 total reviews). Our focus was on professional billing—evaluation and management (E/M) accuracy, as well as Hierarchical Condition Category (HCC) documentation sufficiency.

 

Chart reviews often aren’t enough if you want audit findings to stick. So Norwood also performed:

 

  • Educational sessions for 84 providers on a 1:1 basis, each ranging from 15 to 30 minutes, tailored by specialty
  • Weekly shared results meetings to chart progress

 

We concluded with a final project wrap-up meeting with leadership.

 

The results

 

Our work yielded the following results:

 

  • Identification of an estimated $5-10M of annual opportunity related to missed diagnoses or higher E/M acuity; the client believed it might have been as much as $30M
  • Post education surveys with 96% positive response rates from the providers themselves
  • Uncovering of additional global risks related to performance, which we relayed to the client

 

Based on our work our partner ultimately put out a request for proposal for additional work.

 

Norwood’s mission is Bringing Health to Hospitals’ Bottom Lines, and in so doing improve the lives of people in their communities. 

 

Armed with our findings, we allowed our partner’s providers to get back to caring for their patients.

 

Partner with us

 

Norwood is your partner for consulting and managed services. We’re here to serve your organization and your providers’ needs.   

 

Contact us at consulting@norwood.com.  

 

 

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